by Jeff Garvin
I had serious doubts, though—not only about the plausibility of sustaining a story with such a big “secret,” but about my ability to authentically write a character who was struggling with gender identity. Still, the compulsion to write this story was overwhelming. And when I handed in the first fifty pages to my writing group, they enthusiastically urged me to continue—but first, they wanted to know if being gender fluid was “a real thing.”
That’s when I knew I had to write this book.
Symptoms of Being Human took more than a year to research, write, and revise. I had a few key one-on-one conversations, and I read a lot—mostly firsthand accounts by trans and gender nonbinary people, but academic studies as well. Some of what I learned shocked me: 64 percent of transgender and nonbinary people in the US experience sexual violence in their life—12 percent before they graduate high school. Forty-one percent will attempt suicide. Genderqueer and transgender people are four times as likely to live below the poverty line.
Riley goes through a lot in Symptoms, but is blessed with understanding parents, supportive friends, a professional therapist, and a big network of online and IRL people dealing with the same issues. Very few trans or genderqueer teens are so lucky, and almost none have access to the kind of resources or media platform Riley does.
If you’re struggling with gender identity, anxiety, or depression, you are not alone. Please make use of the resources on the next page. They want to help.
RESOURCES
TRANS LIFELINE
translifeline.org
US: 1-877-565-8860
Canada: 1-877-330-6366
THE TREVOR PROJECT
thetrevorproject.org
1-866-488-7386
NATIONAL CENTER FOR TRANSGENDER EQUALITY
transequality.org
TRANSGENDER LAW CENTER
transgenderlawcenter.org
ANXIETYBC
youth.anxietybc.com
ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
adaa.org
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THANK YOU:
To Ami for lighting even the darkest of places so that I could see to keep writing.
To Rachel Ekstrom for delivering my dream, and then staying to help me unpack it. To Kristin Rens for her generous and unrelenting dedication to making this a better book and me a better writer. To Mike/Michelle Dennis for her time, her commitment, and for reminding me who Riley really is.
To Kelsey Murphy, Caroline Sun, Nellie Kurtzman, Alexei Esikoff, Alessandra Balzer, Donna Bray, and everyone at B+B/HarperCollins for making this book possible. To Sarah Kaufman for the perfect cover.
To Don Houts, MD; Diane Chen, PhD; Todd Harmonson; and Melanie Schlotterbeck, CMP, for helping me get the details right. To Sean Francis for making Fullerton real, and to Anna-Lynne Williams and Dean Dinning for the soundtrack.
To my mentors, Cameron Thor, Barbara Deutsch, Father Coughlin, and Graysen Harnwell for pushing. To the teachers who got to me: Julie Crain, Heidi Burns, George Baratta, Norman Cohen, Vicki Silva, Pam Ezell, Everett Lewis, and Mark Axelrod.
To Riki, for teaching me to love books (and to not split infinitives or use prepositions to end sentences with). To my D&D crew for believing, and especially to Dan, for taking the plunge with me. To Lissa Price, for her unselfish guidance and generosity. To Brian Perry and Derek Rogers, for making me a better writer. To Tara Sonin, for finding me and insisting that I could. To my brothers, Corey and David, for all that time on the bus and in my heart. To Scott Satenspiel, for being really good (flaps arms) and always there. To Corey, Adam, and Zander, for unreasonable support. To Jasmine & Pete, for giving me a home base in NYC.
To J. K. Rowling and Stephen King, without whose work I might never have sat down at the keyboard again after so much time away.
To the LGBTQIA community for their bravery, love, and support.
And to you, dear reader, for giving me my dream job. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PHOTO BY ZANDER VERA
Before becoming a writer, JEFF GARVIN acted in films and TV and was the front man of a nationally touring rock band. He has a BFA in film from Chapman University and lives in Southern California, surrounded by adorable, shedding beasts. Symptoms of Being Human is his first novel. You can visit him online at jeffgarvinbooks.com.
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CREDITS
COVER ART © 2016 BY KOVACS TAMAS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
SILK SCREEN BY GOWANAS PRINT LAB
COVER DESIGN BY SARAH NICHOLE KAUFMAN
COPYRIGHT
Some of the websites mentioned in this book are fictional. For real life LGBTQ support and information, please see the Resources section.
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN. Copyright © 2016 by Jeff Garvin. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Garvin, Jeff.
Symptoms of being human / Jeff Garvin. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: “A gender-fluid teenager who struggles with identity creates a blog on the topic that goes viral, and faces ridicule at the hands of fellow students”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-238286-3 (hardback)
EPub Edition © January 2016 ISBN 9780062382887
[1. Identity—Fiction. 2. Gender identity—Fiction. 3. Sex role—Fiction. 4. Bullying—Fiction. 5. Blogs—Fiction. 6. High schools—Fiction. 7. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.1.G377Sy 2016 2015015403
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
15 16 17 18 19 PC/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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